Caritas Ghana, the Relief and Development Organization of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference has received a grant of $54,700 from Caritas Korea to embark on an alternative skills training for unemployed youth in the West African country.
At a virtual ceremony in Accra on June 16, 2021 to officially launch the partnership and awarding of the grant, Fr. Paul Sunghun Choo, Executive Director of Caritas Korea, who participated from Korea said, “Every young people must have had hopes and dreams.”
“I am sure, all of them are trying to cherish and develop their hopes and dreams with confidence in the belief, so call, ‘dreams come true,’” he averred.
“As they are, literally, fighting to survive in this given situation, their hopes and dreams are getting forgotten and rapidly fade away especially in the pandemic,” he lamented.
The Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, Episcopal President of Caritas Ghana who launched the partnership between Caritas Ghana and Caritas Korea in Accra on June 16, commended Caritas Korea for supporting with the grant, saying, “I wish to thank Caritas Korea for their gesture of solidarity and partnership.
With youth unemployment being a major challenge in Ghana and has been made worse by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bishop Osei-Bonsu stated at the launch of the partnership that “The Alternative Skills Training project is targeting unemployed youth especially girls.”
According to Prelate of Ghana’s Konongo-Mampong Diocese, “Many casually employed youth in the informal sector were completely displaced while collapse of businesses further threw many others out of employment.”
“The intervention of Caritas Ghana with the support of Caritas Korea is building on earlier support by the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Finance, to support vulnerable youth in skills training,” he stated.
He also announced that Pax Garment, a Catholic Industry based in Sunyani Diocese, is a beneficiary and Partner for the Alternative skills training of young girls in garment making with Caritas Tamale Archdiocese as the other beneficiary where resettled youth have been mobilized for Plastic and Electronic waste collection.
“I am happy to make the first disbursement of GHc45, 000.00 to Pax Garments to support the accommodation of the apprentices in Sunyani,” he said.
Rev. Fr. Peter Oppong-Kumi, the Chief Executive Officer of Pax Garments, who received the cheque, thanked Caritas Korea for the kind gesture and assured that the funds would be used for the skills development training of the unemployed especially girls.
Mr. Samuel Zan Akologo, the Chief Executive Officer of Caritas Ghana, who moderated the virtual ceremony, also thanked Caritas Korea for partnering Caritas Ghana to bring hope and smiles into the faces of the teeming unemployed youth especially girls.
Pax Garments is a Ghanaian not-for-profit organization based in Sunyani. It designs, sews, knits, prints and embroiders high-quality clothing at fair prices. With this project, it has an aim of counteracting Ghana’s high unemployment by creating jobs and training people.
During training and work at Pax Garments, the employees receive specialist knowledge of textile processing and learn to operate the machines correctly. In addition, working at Pax Garments offers a structured and regulated day-to-day work for employees. For the population, we offer the possibility to buy locally produced quality goods (also custom-made on request), in place of Chinese mass truth.
